Soma-Nomaoi is a festival that recreates a battle scene from more than 1,000 years ago. It is annually held for 4 days from July 22 to 25 in Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, in the eastern part of Japan. In this historical event, 600 mounted samurai in traditional Japanese armor, with long swords at their side and ancestral flagstaffs streaming from their backs, ride across open fields. Soma-Nomaoi has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Photo: A young woman (C) clad in samurai costume leads other local poeple as she rides her horse during a parade at the annual Soma Nomaoi festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 28, 2012. The traditional full-scale festival kicked off for the first time after the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant following the massive earthquake and the tsunami on March 11, 2011. (Photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP Photo)

The mystifying flow of motion. We can rarely appreciate its beauty. Though there are ways to capture it on film, allowing us to marvel at its complexity. Stephen Orlando is a photographer who takes pleasure highlighting the magnificence of aquatic sports by using the brilliance of light. The beauty of the images that he creates comes not only from the composition of the photo, but also from the way Stephen managed to show the color transitions between each stroke of the kayaker. Even the rapids do not stand in the way of the marvelous dance of light. (Photo by Stephen Orlando)

Taken by photographer, Denis Budkov, 33, the Plosky Tolbachik is one of a cluster of volcanoes located in the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia. After taking a lucky group of tourists to the crater of the flat volcano, the Russian photographer managed to get less than 300 metres away from the spurting jets of lava. Photo: The underground entrance to the volcano resembles a scene from the latest Hobbit movie. (Photo by Denis Budkov/Caters News)

Hisakata Hiroyuki, a talented photographer from Japan, has managed to snap a group of mortal tomcats in a variety of high-flying kung fu poses. Using his own rapid-fire reactions, he photographs the lovable cats flying through the air, their legs and paws outstretched, like something out of an action movie. (Photo by Hisakata Hiroyuki/Caters News Agency)

Bam Bam makes a fan feel his sweaty chest at Johnson' s Station in Picayune, Ms., on February 11, 2018. The Micro Wrestling Federation is a full scale, WWE type event sporting an entire cast under five feet tall. Founded in 2000, the MWF is the longest running organization within the Little Person wrestling industry according to its manager. (Photo by Emily Kask/AFP Photo)

Street artist Juandres Vera puts the finishing touches to a giant 3d pavement mural of The Beatles on September 23, 2011 in Liverpool, England. The giant 24m long by 6m wide work, entitled “XXL Liverpool” has been commissioned to celebrate the dual 50th anniversary of The Beatles first gig at The Cavern Club and meeting their manager Brian Epstein. The Beatles drawing kicks off The James Carling International Pavement Art Competition which starts on Sunday and will feature more than 50 of the world's best pavement artists (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A performer wearing a lion mask performs the Ise Daikagura lion dance at the remote village of Yamanawa on February 08, 2021 in Ryuo, Japan. Ise Daikagura is a group of traditional Lion Dance performers who pray in front of farmers houses and businesses for good grain harvests and disease-free lives. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

Nine years ago, Tom Carter traveled from San Francisco to China, responding to a job posting that turned out to be a scam. He managed to find another job as a teacher, and saved enough money to embark on a 56,000 km trip through all of China's 33 provinces that lasted two years. Carrying a camera – just a a 4-megapixel point-and-shoot – Carter captured some amazing images of the widely varying landscape, people, and architecture across the nation. Photo: Buddhist pilgrim family from Sichuan. (Photo by Tom Carter via The Atlantic)